De Pere natives Johnny Greaves, right, and his son CJ Greaves will be two of the top contenders at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway this weekend at the World Championship Off-Road Races.

For De Pere native Johnny Greaves, this weekend's races at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway will be the closest thing to a home game he'll have all year.

The 46-year-old Greaves, one of the country's biggest names in off-road racing whose schedule takes him from coast to coast, will join his 17-year-old son CJ Greaves for the this weekend's World Championship Off Road Races in Crandon.

Greaves, who resides in Abrams during the season and California during the winter months, has been living the dream, racing off-road trucks full time since 1997.

"I was working installing windows for Pahl Windows and Doors just like any other weekly oval track driver locally back in the mid 1990s," said Greaves. "I worked on my trucks late into the night just like the local dirt track guys do, and went racing on the weekends. I built truck chassis in the winter for some extra income."

Greaves began extending olive branches with some of the companies whose products he'd use on his truck.

"General Tires was the first company to cut me a check to use their tires," said Greaves.

From there, Greaves got even more aggressive with his marketing efforts.

"We were winning a lot at the time, so that helped out," said Greaves. "Almost all of the competition was Ford products. I was always a Toyota guy, so I began sending videotapes of my races to the decision-makers at Toyota."

The determination and legwork paid off.

"When we started with Toyota, it was initially a contingency program," said Greaves. "I got paid when I won. We were getting exposure on ESPN, and that's when things really began to snowball."

Enter Forest County Potowatomi.

"I was teamed up with Jeff Kincaid at the time," Greaves said. "Potowatomi got involved, and initially, it wasn't this huge sponsor deal everyone thought it was."

Greaves gave his notice to his employer and he and Kincaid rolled the dice and went racing full time. He's never looked back.

"It continues to be a great ride," Greaves said. "I met some folks from Monster Energy Drink year ago at a Supercross race down in Florida."

The sponsorship deal was simple initially.

"I had the Monster logo on my helmet and I had to hold a can of Monster Energy drink in victory lane," said Greaves.

Things took off from there.

"We bought a place in California and now we pretty much stay out there from September through March," said Greaves. "I do a lot of promotional work for Monster and Toyota. We always try and go the extra mile for our sponsors. You've got to keep your face in front of them all the time."

CJ is an up-and-comer in the sport, winning his share of races and titles along the way as well. CJ attends a virtual online school.

"It's called the Wisconsin school iQ Academy," said Johnny Greaves. "With all of the traveling we do, it's a must."

Greaves, who cut his teeth racing motocross at the age of 12, had a brief stint in racing an IMCA modified owned by Eddie Muenster in 1994.

"Eddie's a buddy of mine from our motocross days and I remember actually winning the Budweiser Shootout at Luxemburg," recalled Greaves. "I want to say it was the same weekend we used to have an off-road race at the fairgrounds out there. That was a lot of fun and I try to catch as many dirt track races as I can locally during the summer."

Greaves had an opportunity to go race NASCAR trucks for Toyota years ago, but he's comfortable with the off-road trucks.

"I built this team myself and I've got a real comfort level with this," said Greaves.

As for Crandon?

"It's my home track, without question," said Greaves. "We test there a lot. The first time I ever saw off-road racing was when I was racing motocross up there. I got my feet wet there racing buggies way back in the day."

And for the future?

"I don't see myself racing forever, and that's where CJ comes in," said Johnny Greaves. "I told him next year I'm putting "Dad's 401k" across his driver's suit. If he wants to keep racing, I'll just keep managing the team."

141 sprint cars: The IRA winged sprint cars will make their final appearance of the year at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek on Sunday night. On May 27, Fredonia's Mike Kertscher turned the first sub-10 second lap at the 1/3-mile clay oval with a 10.750. Joining the 900-horsepower sprinters will be street stocks, sport fours and winged mini-sprints, which will make their first appearance at the track. Sprint car hot laps begin at 6 p.m. with time trials and racing to follow.

Seymour late models: The season finale at Seymour Speedway on Sunday night will include late models' third appearance of the season. The street stock title is up for grabs as Freedom's Travis Springstroh holds a 10-point edge over Tigerton's Gary Kasparek and Clintonville's Calvin Stueck holds a comfortable 25-point lead over Clintonville's Jeff Behm in the 4 cylinder class. A trailer race of destruction is also on tap. Racing begins at 6 p.m.

Points racing in the IMCA classes has been completed. Pulaski's Jason Czarapata is the modified champ, Pulaski native Brandon Czarapata is the stock car champ and Long is the sportmod champ.

Luxemburg notebook: Kilgore holds a nine-point lead over Sean Jerovetz of Sobieski in the IMCA modifieds at Luxemburg Speedway heading into the final points program at 7 tonight. Brandon Czarapata holds a three-point lead over Union's Troy Muench in the IMCA stock cars; Green Bay's Eric Mahlik holds a three-point lead over defending champion Brad Lautenbach of New Franken in the IMCA sportmods; Denmark's Tom Brumlic has a 14-point lead over hometown driver Derek Moede in the IMCA hobby stocks; and Oconto Falls' Ralph Liegeois Jr. holds an 11 point lead over Green Bay's Dan Van Pay in the 4-cylinders.

Thunderhill notebook: Saturday will be the season finale at Thunderhill Raceway in Sturgeon Bay. In IMCA stock cars, Algoma's Dave Bouche heads into the night with a two-point lead over Muench; longtime Door County racer Bernie Reinhardt holds a one-point lead over Green Bay's Jarred Van Laanen in IMCA sportmods; Brumlic leads Luxemburg's Derek Moede by six points in IMCA hobby stocks; and hometown driver Dennis Weidner leads James Anderson of Sturgeon Bay by five points in street stocks. James Lee Tebon has a comfortable 30-point lead over hometown driver Billy LeMieux in IMCA mods, and hometown driver Joey Scoon has wrapped up the 4-cylinder title. Racing starts at 6 p.m.

Shawano notebook: The season will wrap up at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Shawano Speedway. Nick Anvelink of Navarino in WISSOTA late models, Jason Czarapata in IMCA modifieds, Dan Michonski of Marion in IMCA stock cars, Tracy Wassenberg of Shawano in IMCA sportmods and Joel Bennett of Hortonville in Fastrak late models have comfortable points leads.